Who's up for some Heavy Metal Christmas?
I've never been a huge Metal guy. But, you know, who can deny the brilliance of AC/DC or Iron Maiden or Motorhead? And Metal Christmas songs used to be cool. But so many, these days, don't even put in a real effort. I guess they figure if its loud enough, people will love it. But that's just annoying. I dig August Burns Red (though I'm still trying to wrap my head around Christian Metal). But, otherwise, I'm getting long in the tooth and loud just isn't enough for Christmas. I want to hear some artistry.
In my humble opinion, PowerTribe is the real deal. They put some thought, some effort, some artistry into this cover of "Carol of the Bells" and it shows. The guitar, the bass, the drums...they're all really attacking this thing with artistry. Anyway, I think so.
I do have a couple of minor issues. Given Trans Siberian Orchestra, I might have chosen a different song. Not that the versions are in any way comparable, but "Carol Of The Bells", these days, gets too readily identified with TSO in the Rock genre. More importantly, PowerTribe is a female fronted Metal band and their vocalist (and bassist) Missy Percifield is really really good. So why an instrumental? You got a hard rock band and your vocalist has the pipes and skill Missy does, show her off. "Show her off" sounds kind of sexist, but I'd say the same thing if PowerTribe had a male vocalist that good. Next year, guys, vocals on your Christmas song. Just sayin'. Incidentally, as I said, they're all good, so a little love, too, for guitarist Darren Stroud and drummer John Chominsky. They're both awesome on this thing.
Check out some of PowerTribe's music on Soundcloud and their album "Prepare For Battle". And they'd really appreciate it if you'd stop by their Facebook page and give them a "like". Oh, and "Carol of the Bells"? You can download it free from PowerTribe's official web site.
So I'm going through some of the stuff I've downloaded this year, trying to figure out how to pare it down for our Stubby's collection (if the computer lives long enough) and I come to this one--"Christmas Is Awful" from Phil Awful & The Experiments. Three of the six songs from this California band I'd say are Ramones style Punk. There's an "Experimental" cover of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" (which, personally, I think is a long overdue mocking) and the record closes with a Folk Punk tune that offers up the possibility that this might be your "Last Christmas" (nobody really knows). But it's the opening track that I love. "Merry Christmas?" is Rock N Roll with attitude and a point of view and just the sort of thing I'd love to have on the Stubby's House collection--a perfect Rock anthem to close 2018. I don't mind the politics (Phil really doesn't care for our current President but, to be fair, he doesn't have a very high opinion of any politician), but I do try to avoid profanity. My attempts to clean it up were unsuccessful. So "Merry Christmas?" won't make the Stubby's House collection, which is sad. But there's no reason you shouldn't download it for your own head and/or mixtape. It's on Bandcamp.
The other highlight, for me, of "Christmas Is Awful" is "Cuz It's Christmas". It's a Punk raver where Phil laments that we're locked into a certain pattern of holiday behavior whether we give a crap about Christmas and convention or not. "Cuz It's Christmas" could still make the Stubby's House cut--it's short, that helps--though I'm swimming in worthy music of the season (maybe I should pull a Sufjan and put together a 5-disc set).
Any radio geeks out there? Radio call signs are 4 letters long. In the east, they start with "W", in the west it's "K". But out San Diego way is a radio station whose call sign is XETRA. 91X is an Alternative Rock station and on Sunday Nights they host the Loudspeaker program. Loudspeaker has put together a yuuuge collection of the kinds of Christmas songs they like to play. Some old, some new. All with attitude. MC Flow's "Pot In The Latkes"? It's in here. How about "It's A Tom Waits Christmas" from Pony Death Ride? Yep, got that too. You got yer Punk, you got yer Rap, you got yer Alt Country. And, of course, you've got all manner of Alt Rock. I'm rather partial to "This Christmas" by Louis XIV. And for a truly retro feel, take Dave Scott's "Christmas With You". 26 tracks in all. It's a "Holiday Grab Bag" and everybody's comin'. On Bandcamp.
22. Marie Haddad - Holiday Cheer!
4-4-2 Music is a tiny label in Sydney, Australia. And, as a tiny label (they favor the word "boutique"), they do pretty much what they want. They aren't concerned with hitting the charts or having a "sound". They put out small quantities of CDs (sometimes CD-Rs) and, occasionally, vinyl. And, every year, they do a free or name-your-price Christmas compilation of their artists and friends on Bandcamp. It's the Christmas music the way they'd like to hear it. And that's the thing. Don't think I've ever come across any of these before and they go all the way back to 2008's "A Whale In A Manger". Where, exactly, am I supposed to find the time to listen to all that?
Well, I did listen to "Ring Them Bells", so I suppose we start there. In addition to the groovy Electro Country take on "Do You Hear What I Hear" from Joshua Isaac, I very much enjoyed the lo-fi Indie Pop of the ABC Jugband, the banjo driven "Unto Us A Child Is Born" by the onestarband, and the straight Folk cover of Paul Kelly's "How To Make Gravy" from Blay. Kinda like the lo-fi Electronic title track, a Bob Dylan cover, from The Flying Go Go Girls. So I suppose, when I get to the older sets, I start with those groups. Right? In any case, there's enough good stuff on this one to warrant a name-your price download from Bandcamp. Below the tracklist, you'll see a video of "Nothing For Christmas", the ABC Jugband's contribution to last year's collection. And I was also happy to see a cover of "Closing of the Year" on the 2015 collection, "At Least I Bring You Hope".
5. Joshua Isaac - Do You Hear What I Hear?
Back when I worked in radio, there was a Jingle company, Drake-Chenault, that would put together these great presentation records to sell you on their production packages. Drake-Chenault was very expensive and the small market stations I worked for couldn't afford their Jingles. But we loved the presentation records, which would often open with a bit of radio theater before the guy with the deep perfect voice would take over to introduce the assortment. Long and seemingly random story, I know, but one year Drake-Chenault's radio theater piece featured a radio station that switched formats to Punk Country (complete with ads for "S*#%-kicker Boots, the boots for kicking s*#% in corners"). There was no such thing as Punk Country, at the time, so this was all very funny back then (and, let's face it, "s*#%-kicker boots" would be funny any time). Now, Punk Country is actually a thing.
And, phew, finally getting to it, London's Dexy describe themselves as a Country Punk band (close enough). Don't know if that's true or not, just based on this single, "Xmas Lights", but I do love the sound. It's definitely at the crossroads of Alt Country and Indie Pop. "Xmas Lights" is not unusual in subject matter--a guy pining for his lost love at Christmas--but the music really lifts this one from ordinary to fantastic. Not that the lyrics don't have their moments.
You can get "Xmas Lights" by Dexy for the price of your email at Noisetrade.